Keegan's Lady (49 page)

She cried out when he delved deeply into her with his touch. Not a cry of fear, but one of surprise. He abandoned her breasts to rain light kisses over her face, whispering reassurances to her.

"It's all right, Caitlin. Shhh. Relax, sweetheart."

She tightened her thighs around his hand to inhibit its thrust. Sensing that he needed to spend more time arousing her, he withdrew and touched his fingertips to the already swollen flange of flesh just above her channel. At the contact, she dragged in a breath and wriggled her hips, trying to escape. Ace followed with his hand, pressed his thumb against her, and began a slow, light rotation.

Under his teasing ministrations, her sensitive flesh slowly hardened and thrust upward, begging for firmer handling. Ace increased the pressure and escalated the pace. In a gesture as old as womankind, she lifted her hips, seeking the pleasure his hand could give her. Ace didn't withhold it from her.

She ignited like sun-dried pitch touched by a match flame. As the first shock of sensation rolled over her, she grabbed hold of his shoulders and arched her back, her breath coming in increasingly quick little pants.

"Ace?"

"Shhh, sweetheart, it's all right."

He smiled slightly, watching the expressions that flitted across her face, her initial startlement, a flash of fear, and then oblivion as passion caught her in its grasp. Along with her climax came shudders that ran the length of her slender body.

Ace drew her close afterward, stroking her hair, whispering gently to her. She pressed her parted lips against ins neck, shivering and breathing unevenly. He waited until the residual shudders finally stopped. Then, and only then, did he pull away from her.

Pulling off his drawers, he positioned himself over her. Al the first nudge of his manhood against her, she blinked and focused. He didn't give her time to become frightened. With one smooth thrust, he buried himself inside her. In all his memory, nothing had ever felt quite so good. She shrieked and dug her fingernails into his skin.

"Noooo!"

Ace felt her body convulse and spasm around him. Every muscle in his own knotted with his effort not to move. "Caitlin? Sweetheart, did I hurt you?"

She stared up at him, her face aglow with passion, her eyes dark splashes against moon-silvered skin. "Ace?"

Who the hell did she think? He clenched his teeth, acutely aware that the reflexive clasping of her tight little passage was about to send him over the edge. Then, explosively and with a force that snapped his whole body taut, he erupted.

"Christ!"

Ace tried to stop it. He would have had more luck trying to make water flow uphill. Like an untried lad, he spent himself inside her without even taking a stroke. Muscles quivering, heart pounding like a bunch of Cheyenne war drums, he lowered himself onto her, trying without much success to bear most of his weight on his arms.

God, what a great lover he was. Next thing he knew, he'd start hopping like a damned rabbit.

"I'm sorry, Caitlin. God, sweetheart, I'm so sorry."

She angled her head to hook her chin over his shoulder, probably to keep from suffocating. Ace knew he was probably squashing her and tried to lift himself away. His arms had turned into wet noodles.

"Why are you sorry?" she asked in a shaky voice.

Ace groaned, finally managed to roll off of her, and planted his face in the pillow. She obviously didn't know what she had missed. Egotist that he was, he wasn't about to enlighten her. Later, he promised himself. When he got some strength back. From the way he felt, that would only be a day or so. A week, tops.

Jesus. Never in all his life had he made such a poor showing and felt so drained afterward. In the past, with other women, he had been able to keep up his rhythm for prolonged periods of time, and he had always gotten it off at least twice. Why, with the one female who mattered, had he been such a Nancy-boy? He felt as drained as a sink with no stopper.

"It's nothing," he mumbled into the ticking. "I just— it's nothing, sweetheart."

Seconds passed. He felt her roll onto her side. Another long silence. "Oh, Ace," she whispered. "I feel so silly."

She felt silly?

"After all my worrying," she said, "and there was hardly anything to it!"

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

The following morning, Ace was already up and dressed by the time Caitlin came sailing from the bedroom. Because he'd asked his brothers to hit the sack early last night, they had already guessed that Caitlin's and his evening together had been momentous. Her entrance into the front room confirmed their suspicions. "Good morning, everyone!" she fairly chortled as she moved toward the table. Coming to a stop near Ace's elbow, she let her smile dim slightly. She glanced at each of his brothers. "I, um, guess I owe you all an apology. You're probably still pretty mad at me, huh?"

Joseph narrowed one eye at her. "Do I look mad?"

"No," she said cautiously.

"Well, then, I guess I'm not." The corners of his mouth quirked. "Looking back on it, I wouldn't have missed it, actually. I've never seen anyone attack a stove pipe with a poker before."

"Does that mean I'm forgiven?"

Ace's brothers smiled. "Only if you promise not to burn supper again," Esa compromised.

"Never on purpose again, anyway," Caitlin vowed, then continued toward the kitchen. "Isn't it an absolutely glorious day?"

Joseph yawned, scratched his head, and cast a glance out the front window at the overcast sky. "Oh, yeah . . ." When Caitlin disappeared into the kitchen, he batted his eyelashes and grinned at Ace. "You give a little swimming instruction last night, big brother?"

"Shut up."

Esa stopped chomping on the toast he'd just stuffed into his mouth. Around the half-chewed chunks, he said, "Where'd you go swimmin'? In the creek?"

Joseph chuckled and scratched beside his nose. Caitlin reentered the room just then, a steaming mug of coffee cradled between her palms. She sat at the table near Ace's elbow, flashed him a shy smile, and proceeded to turn an alarming shade of crimson.

Why she was blushing, Ace didn't know. Hardly anything had happened, after all.

He lifted his mug, took a giant swig of coffee, and burned the hair off of his tongue clear back to his tonsils. Tears rushed to his eyes, and he coughed. Everyone at the table, expect Joseph, turned a curious gaze on him.

Ace motioned with the mug. "Now that's hot coffee."

Caitlin gingerly took a sip. "Mmm." The blush on her face began to recede. She glanced around at each of his brothers. "What're everyone's plans for the day?"

Ace intended to make proper love to his wife the first chance he got, but he had business to tend to first. "I have to spend the morning in town."

"Esa and I have a stretch of fence to mend," David put in.

Joseph shrugged. "I thought I'd fix the wagon wheel and do some weeding in the garden. After that, wherever my nose leads me, I guess."

Caitlin flashed another smile. "I thought I'd make cinnamon rolls. Does that sound good?"

It didn't sound as good as getting her off alone in the bedroom and tossing up her skirts, Ace thought wryly. With any luck, he'd pour it to her so hard and fast, he'd make her yeast bread fall.

Hardly anything to it? Jesus H. Christ.

***

When he got to town later that morning, Ace tethered his horse out behind the livery stable, his hope being that he could slip down the street to the office of Barbary Coast Mortgage without anyone noticing. The fewer people who saw him entering the building, the better. Until he got things straightened out here in No Name, he couldn't afford for anyone to connect him with the company that had financed the purchase of so many parcels of land along the proposed railroad spur route.

Although his and Caitlin's relationship had taken a definite turn for the better last night, it was still fragile. A girl who'd been betrayed so cruelly by her own father wasn't likely to take any man on faith. He couldn't risk her accidentally learning of his many deceptions until he had rectified matters. Then, and only then, would he tell her the truth about everything—when he had proof in black and white that he'd had a change of heart.

Despite his tension about being seen, Ace was amused to catch John Parrish, the supposed proprietor of Barbary Coast Mortgage, in the middle of writing a letter to his fiance, Eden. A love letter, if the flush that crept up John's neck when he saw Ace was any indication. After stuffing the stationery in a drawer, he shot up from his desk as if the chair were piping hot.

"Ace!" He glanced worriedly at the windows. “What're you doing here?"

Except for one other time, Ace had never paid John a visit at the office. In the past, any time he had needed to speak to the younger man, he'd shoved a note through the mail drop in his hotel room door to arrange a meeting elsewhere.

"There's been a slight change in plans," Ace told him lightly. Turning the straight-backed chair in front of Bonn's desk, Ace straddled the seat and folded his arms over the back. "You got a few minutes?"

Neat and businesslike in his tailored tweed suit, John stepped over to the lock the door and draw the shades. Watching him, Ace concluded it wasn't any wonder the people in No Name had so easily accepted John in his role of lien holder; he'd been born to play the part.

"You're taking an awful chance coming here," he said. "What if someone saw you and guesses what we're up lo?"

"I tied my horse in back of the livery, and I was careful. Unless someone just happened to be staring out a window, chances are I wasn't seen." Ace trailed his gaze over the desk. "Where'd your portrait of Eden hare off to?"

John's mouth tightened as he resumed his seat across from Ace. "After Joseph sent me a note telling me of her uncanny resemblance to Caitlin O'Shannessy and your certainty that Eden is O'Shannessy's daughter, I was afraid to keep her picture sitting out. People do come in here to see me about loans, you know. I was afraid someone might notice Eden's picture and start putting two and two together."

"Good thinking," Ace observed. Meeting his future brother-in-law's gaze, he added, "Caitlin's last name is no longer O'Shannessy, you know."

John smoothed a hand over his dark hair and pushed his spectacles higher on his nose. "Yes, I know. Joseph got word to me of your marriage. Not that I wouldn't have heard. For weeks, it was all anyone talked about around here." He met Ace's gaze. "I heard you gave her a toss in the hay and had to marry her. Can you believe the lies people tell when gossip starts running thick? And about a man like you. It fairly boggles the mind."

Ace bit back a sheepish smile. "Yeah, well, there's just no figuring folks sometimes. Caitlin isn't the kind of young woman to take a roll in the hay with a stranger. I can't imagine anyone who knows her very well saying such a thing."

John nodded, then frowned slightly. "I have to admit, I was surprised to hear you'd married her. As much as you hate the O'Shannessys, well..." He lifted his hands. "You could've knocked me over with a feather."

"A man doesn't choose who he falls in love with. It just happens. She's a wonderful girl."

Ace rubbed the stubble along his jaw. Before going home to Caitlin, he'd need a shave. In his mind's eye, he pictured the hayloft in the barn, filled to the brim with I fresh hay. His thoughts went from there to images of Caitlin as she'd looked last night, her slender body arched up against him in ecstasy. A roll in the hay, hm? The idea had its merits.

With a start, he realized John had been talking. He jerked himself back to the present. "Say what?"

"I just asked what the change in plans might be," John repeated. "Are you wanting me to start the foreclosures ahead of schedule?"

"No. In fact, I've decided there aren't going to be any foreclosures. I've changed my mind, John. Now that I'm married to Caitlin, I feel a little differently about things. Revenge is a shaky foundation to build a marriage on. I've decided to give it up. In short, we're actually going to build that railroad spur."

John's blue eyes widened. "You're kidding." When he saw that Ace was serious, he whistled. "Holy Jehosha-phats! That'll cost you a bloody fortune."

"Please spare me the lectures. I already know it isn't a sound business move. I'm willing to suffer the losses."

John studied him for a long moment. "We're talking some fairly heavy losses, Ace. Are you sure you've thought this through carefully?"

"I'm sure. I'm thinking of it as an investment in my future. Being able to ship my cattle to Denver by rail will decrease the number of cattle I'll lose. But that's not my only reason. It's mainly personal. I've decided there are more important things in life than money. I can't expect Caitlin to be happy with a man who sets out to financially destroy all the people she knows, including her brother. Now can I?"

"Instead of destroying them, you'll be making them heaps of money, and they're all crooks," John observed. "Patrick O'Shannessy included. All the men who invested in land along that spur route did so at the expense of small-time dirt farmers. Before, I could look at that and figure the farmers had gotten money for their land they wouldn't have been offered otherwise, that they were better off because of this hoax than they ever could have hoped to be. But now?"

"I've already considered that. I'm going to offer those particular investors exactly what they paid for the land, not a penny more. If they refuse to sell, I'll threaten to sit on things until they're unable to make their mortgage payments, then foreclose. They'll knuckle under, and they won't make a dime on the venture."

"Ace, money doesn't grow on trees. You can't start throwing it away. True, you're a wealthy man, but as rich as Croesus, you're not."

"You're a financier to the marrow of your bones, John. That's why I originally hired you into the corporation. But there are times when wise financial ventures and a man's personal feelings don't mix. This is one of them. I have to do this. I need you to help me."

John puffed air into his cheeks. "All right, Ace. Far be it from me to tell you how to spend your money."

For the next two hours, the two men discussed what they'd have to do before construction of the railroad spur could get underway. At the conclusion of their meeting, John said, "I'll start sending out inquiries immediately. It takes a lot more to build a spur than just money, you know."

"I appreciate the fact that it won't be easy." Ace pushed up from the chair. "Just remember that speed is of the essence. For the sake of my marriage, I want this process off and running as quickly as you can manage”.

As Ace left the mortgage company, he spotted Patrick O'Shannessy exiting the feed store across the street. Their gazes locked. Ace couldn't quite bring himself to smile, but he did tip his hat to his brother-in-law before he turned and headed down the street toward the saloon.